Team JETs (Joan, Emma & Tracy) Marathon Experience
Joan Emma Tracy AKA the JETs named by Jane Eccleston . After all our hard work and experiences
encountered during our training runs of which included naked men and rude
banter-our pre run advice was to try to sleep and not to encounter in any
shenanigans.
On the morning of the Marathon Anthony Hart drove the very nervous JETs as close to the start as possible but not before being praised for being a true gent to Joan and ourselves.
We all got into our make shift bin liner waterproofs and made
our way to the start line, but not before bumping into Bacon mon and Bassnett
who lead us to the toilet and then offered us some Vaseline. Stupidly, I
declined and I now have some small chaff wounds.
We eventually positioned ourselves at the start line and not
before long the gun went and we were off, not even 50 yards over the start mat
I got stood on! Luckily my feet were already frozen and couldn’t feel much of
the size 9 trainer. We steadily made our way round and before we knew it we
were at the 7K A&T water station. We first saw the sight of Christine who
was hauling boxes onto tables, with the rest of the morning shift working away,
at this point the bin liners and fleece were dumped and it was just bare arms
from then on in thinking we would soon warm up, and grabbing a pouch of water
we ran on. The spectators were brilliant chanting mostly Tracy’s name as we
passed the crowds, myself and Joan felt like we were running alongside a
celebrity we thought she was very popular and had a lot of spectators routing
for her until we realised that Tracy’s name was plastered clearly over her t-
shirt (A tip for next time). As we ran along I was doing my usual window
browsing at spectators in pjs and the usual joke cracking which kept us all in
good humour, then the foam came all I could here was Joan laughing at the back
of me saying you have bubbles coming from your behind well you can imagine the
banter from that! I can only assume I use too much fairy in my wash! It carried
us through until we saw some more A&T friendly faces at the 16 mile point
Thanks to Suzanne, Dave, Craig, Debbie, and Brenda. As we ran through the very
muddy and cobbled park we came across runners clinging to fences trying
anything to avoid the largest mud bath you ever saw. I offered to lend them
some of my foam of which was now oozing out of my knees. Finally we dropped off
the fence and continued to run along open farm lanes at which the hail was
beating down in our faces (talk about brain freeze). At 18 miles we felt a
boost was needed and between us all and with no feeling left in our frozen
fingers we eventually managed to open Joan’s bum bag of un touched goodies, and
decided to share a gel shot. Cold and
numb by 20 miles we could barely even talk to each other. We just got our heads
down, dug in and prayed for the 41K water station -AKA home land. Finally out
in the distance ahead I saw a Blue A&T Coat running towards me, It was Anne
all giddy and pleased to see me although Anne was chattering away I could
barely talk back, mostly due to my face being frozen! It was so lovely to see
the SEA of BLUE A&T team mates
chanting for me to go. I urged for Jane to go and get Tracy and Joan, as I had
run on without them. I knew that I was nearly finished and apart from having
swollen hands and being very cold and wet I actually felt OK. I crossed the
line with a time of 5:17:48 and Tracy and Joan
followed close behind me in 5:20: 22 and 5:20:41 We all hugged and cried at the fact we had
completed our first marathon and in the most freak of weather conditions. We
proudly collected our medals and headed home to hot baths.
I
would like to thank all of those who supported us and all the kind
messages we received. One in particular from Clare who reduced me to
tears and brought home the reality of the whole training and achievement
- thank you! E x
No comments:
Post a Comment